My Chacra - Contagious websolutions

Global Electronics Factories In Spotlight

My Chacara — 2010-08-18T06:58:32Z

Recently, a model of genuine worker participation has surprisingly emerged in China.

By Garrett BrownAug 04, 2010

Brand-name and contract electronics manufacturers have been rocked this year by a series of ongoing scandals about working conditions in the Asian plants that work day and night to produce the vast majority of the world's consumer electronics. The worker suicides and cancer cases have called into question the effectiveness of electronics brand's elaborate “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) programs, their contradictory business model, and the near-zero participation by workers in factory health and safety programs.

In the first five months of 2010 at Foxconn Technology Group's giant 300,000-worker electronics assembly plant in Longhua, China, 16 workers had attempted suicide by jumping off the top of tall dormitory buildings, resulting in 12 deaths and four crippling injuries, and at least 20 other workers were restrained before committing suicide. All workers were between 18 and 24 and were migrants from rural areas of western China. By the end of May 2010, at least 49 young semiconductor workers had contracted cancer -– including 32 brain, leukemia, and lymphoma cancers -– while working at Samsung's huge electronics plants throughout Korea. Nineteen deaths have occurred, mostly to workers in their 20s. Samsung denied the cancers were work-related, but a Korean magazine reprinted an internal Samsung handbook outlining the use of at least six carcinogens at its plants, including arsine, benzene, and trichloroethylene.

In March 2010, China's State Administration for Workplace Safety (SAWS) confirmed that 47 workers at the United Win cell phone plant in Suzhou, China, had been hospitalized in the last year for n-hexane poisonings resulting in peripheral neuropathies, severe muscle atrophy and long-term disabilities. United Win workers had uncontrolled exposures while using the solvent to clean touch screens of computers and phones.

Both the Foxconn and United Win plants are major contractor facilities for Apple.

Global Supply Chain “Standard Features”

The three plants –- one in southern China, one in coastal eastern China, and one in Korea -– share common features which have come to characterize contract factories throughout the electronics industry, and in global supply chains for other consumer products such as garments, footwear, athletic equipment, and toys.

The “standard features” of these global supply chains have produced high levels of workplace stress, significant occupational illnesses, and traumatic injuries. Among these characteristics are: low pay (base pay in China is under $140 a month for the first 160 hours of work), which means employees work long hours of overtime to increase their take-home pay; long hours of work (70-80 hours during a six- or seven-day work week), which means intense chemical and noise exposures extending well beyond the base 40-hour week; high production quotas and low piecework pay rates, which lead to intense work periods, ergonomic issues, and additional hours of (often unpaid) work; harsh management regimes, quasi-military in Foxconn's case, with strictly enforced “factory rules” governing all aspects of workers' lives, with pay deductions (fines) for infractions, as decided by line supervisors and managers.

Foxconn Suicides

At Foxconn, electronics workers have 12-hour shifts (with two one-hour breaks), frequently six days a week. Talking at work is forbidden (with fines meted out to violators), and recent counseling sessions on site have revealed that some workers are so exhausted and isolated by work that they do not even know the names of their roommates in their 10-person dorm rooms.

“We are extremely tired, with tremendous pressure,” one assembly worker told investigators from China Labor Watch. “We finish one step every seven seconds, which requires us to concentrate and keep working and working. We work even faster that the machines. Every shift we finish 4,000 Dell computers, all the while standing up. We can accomplish these assignments through collective effort, but many of us feel worn out.”

“I know why all those people jumped,” 23-year-old Lin Fengxiang told a national Chinese newspaper. “In here, nobody gives a damn about you.” Trainee Li Cheng, paid a reduced wage during the months-long “trainee” period, told the same reporter, “This is their territory. We can only try to survive.”

A Beijing sociology professor wrote in the Southern Metropolitan Daily in Guangzhou on May 17, “People cannot help but ask, what kind of world has Foxconn created? . . . In the eyes of Foxconn's managers, the only real thing there is in young people's lives is the sweat and blood needed for the production line. Their feelings, their personal life, and their social networks are systematically neglected, compressed and stripped away. . . . Of course, this kind of factory is a sweatshop.”

Both Foxconn and Apple have strenuously denied the worker suicides are a reflection of sweatshop working conditions. But Apple's own CSR program has documented ongoing problems. The last international scandal at Foxconn erupted in 2006 after a local newspaper exposé of harsh working conditions.

Apple's 'Code of Conduct'

Apple conducted an audit then and found that its “code of conduct” -– setting a limit of 60 hours of work per week and no more than six consecutive days of work -– was violated 34 percent of the time for working hours and 25 percent of the time for six-day work weeks at Foxconn. Numerous reports by non-governmental organizations since 2006 have documented worsening conditions as Apple's demand for iPhone and iPad production has skyrocketed in the past four years. Foxconn facilities reportedly produce 70 percent of Apple products.

It should be noted that Apple's code allowing 20 hours a week of overtime -– the same as the industry's Electronics Industry Citizen Coalition code -– explicitly violates China's national law prohibiting overtime greater than nine hours per week or 36 hours per month. Work weeks of 70 to 80 hours also renders meaningless reported “CSR compliance” with chemical and noise exposure limits because these limits assume exposures lasting only 40 hours per week.

Apple recently issued a “Supplier Responsibility: 2010 Progress Report” that indicated of the 102 plants it audited in eight countries, 69 percent had inadequate worker training on OHS; 48 percent of the plants used personal protective equipment incorrectly or were without it altogether and 24 percent of plants had never conducted an ergonomics evaluation of the highly repetitive assembly work.

The 2010 CSR report also indicated that in Apple's supply chain factories, 58 percent of plants worked more than 60 hours per week at least half the time and 64 percent worked seven days a week at least than half of the time. Little progress has been made since 2006.

At Apple's contractor United Win plant in Suzhou, n-hexane has now been replaced by isopropanol and propanone. But United Win workers had to conduct two spontaneous strikes, one in July 2009 and the second in January 2010, before the substitution was made. Workers at United Win actually work longer hours than at Foxconn and, according to Chinese news media, workers at this Apple supplier have not received the legally required safety trainings, protective equipment, and medical checks.

Samsung's Cancers

Samsung is the world's number one producer of flat screen televisions, the number two producer of mobile phones, and had 2009 sales revenues of $120.4 billion. The company is, by itself, responsible for 20 percent of all Korean exports, and it has as much political power as economic impact in the country.

The growing controversy about cancer clusters among young workers at Samsung's fabs, assembly and research facilities, has forced it to address the concerns with an unprecedented public relations effort. The company has admitted that 22 workers had contracted cancer, with 10 deaths, during the past 13 years. On March 31, 23-year-old Park Ji-yeon died of leukemia, which had first been diagnosed when she was 21 and working at Samsung.

Samsung promised to form an “independent commission” of occupational health experts to evaluate worker exposure to and adverse health effects from radiation, benzene, and other carcinogens at its plants. The company has categorically denied that its workers were exposed to harmful chemicals.

Hankyoreh 21, the Korean magazine reporting on Samsung's internal handbook on carcinogens and solvents, also quoted two engineers at the Giheung semiconductor plant. “Because employees are forced to compete for productivity, there was no choice but to disable the interlock safety device, which is unnecessary and slows down the work rate. They disabled dozens of interlocks on average each day, exempting only those absolutely fatal to safety,” said engineer Kim.

The second engineer, a 10-year Samsung veteran, told the Korean newsweekly, “When I was working there, there were quite a number of organic solvent and gas leak incidents.”

Protecting Supply Chain Workers

How best to protect workers health and safety in global supply chains is still an unanswered question in the electronics industry and other industrial sectors.

The top-down, management systems-focused CSR programs of international brands and their contract manufacturers have failed to bring significant, sustained improvements to the actual factory floor. No matter what the codes of conduct call for, monitoring of them is “gamed” by both contractor factory managers and “independent, third-party” auditors, and actual conditions have only marginally improved over the last decade.

The promises of CSR programs -– now a $40 billion-a-year business globally -– have been fatally undermined by the “iron triangle” of lowest possible per-unit price, highest possible quality, and fastest possible delivery times. Contractor factories, not provided with financial support for CSR policies required by the brands, instead face slashed profit margins and additional costs that can be made up only by further squeezing their own labor force.

Moreover, shop-floor workers in these giant Asian factories have been completely left on the sidelines in plant OHS programs when they could be playing critical roles in conducting inspections and accident investigations, verifying hazard corrections, and providing peer training to co-workers. No effective OHS program can built without the active participation of informed and empowered workers in China, or Korea, or anywhere else.

Recently, a model of genuine worker participation has surprisingly emerged in China. In May, 1,900 workers at a Honda auto plant in Foshan, China conducted a united, disciplined, completely unauthorized strike against the Japanese automaker. The workers, 80 percent of whom are young technical school “interns,” won a 35 percent increase in wages and benefits in negotiations conducted by 16 representatives directly elected by the workers themselves.

Honda attempted to get the workers to sign an agreement to never strike again, but the London Financial Times reported one worker wrote over the form in large characters in red ink, “If you are Chinese, you will definitely not sign –- one for all and all for one.”

That motto –- one for all and all for one -– would be a good one for factory safety committees throughout global supply chains, chains that stretch from giant plants and small workshops in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to retail consumers shopping in malls and boutiques in Europe and the United States.

See online : Article by OH&S

Adios, Doe Run

My Chacara — 2010-08-17T07:54:33Z

By Milagros Salazar (IPS)

LIMA, Jul 28, 2010 (IPS) - Peruvian President Alan García confirmed Wednesday that the permit of the U.S. mining and metallurgical company Doe Run to operate a major smelter complex was being cancelled because the firm missed the deadline for proving that it had the necessary financing to restart operations and complete an environmental cleanup.

La Oroya, where the smelter operates in Peru's highlands region, is one of the most polluted cities in the world.

In a message to the nation delivered in Congress, García said the deadline had expired, the law was being enforced “to the letter,” and the permit for the Doe Run Peru multi-metal smelter had been cancelled.

“A company cannot be allowed to abuse or blackmail our country, as Doe Run has been doing,” he added.

The Missouri-based Doe Run “is subject to national legislation, specifically the law on the closure of mines...and will be subject to the relevant administrative, civil and penal responsibility,” says a Ministry of Energy and Mines statement issued Tuesday.

Tuesday was the deadline set by the government for the company to finish an environmental cleanup and restart the smelter, which was idle for a year after Doe Run Peru filed for bankruptcy.

Doe Run Peru's vice president of environmental affairs José Mogrovejo said the company would study the government's decision.

He also said that just before the deadline, the firm had presented a new proposal to the suppliers of raw materials to which it owes money, and that one of the companies had accepted the proposed arrangement.

Meanwhile, in La Oroya, located at 3,300 metres above sea level in the Andes mountains in the central province of Junín, the smelter's workers continue to protest the loss of their jobs while other residents of the town of 35,000 people are protesting the health damages caused by the toxic fumes from the complex's smokestacks, which spew out sulphur dioxide, lead and cadmium.

In September 2009, Congress had granted the company another 10 months to line up financing to overcome its economic troubles while complying with an environmental cleanup programme, which has been delayed for years.

That was to involve an environmental upgrade to a sulphuric acid plant for the copper circuit, which experts say is a key step in reducing pollution.

The plant forms part of the Environmental Improvement and Management Programme (PAMA) with which Doe Run has systematically failed to comply and for which it has received four extensions since 1997, when it obtained the concession for the smelter in La Oroya.

Under PAMA, the company was to invest between 140 and 150 million dollars. The company also has unpaid bills to suppliers of 120 million dollars.

Sources at the mining investment regulator Osinergmin, which recently transferred its environmental oversight duties to Peru's new environmental regulatory agency OEFA, told IPS that Doe Run Peru was in breach of eight of the nine requisites it was to live up to by Tuesday's deadline.

In a last-minute statement issued Monday night, the company said it had made “significant advances” and that it would continue to work towards restarting operations at the smelter, which was closed down when bank loans were cut off and it was no longer able to pay for metal concentrates.

The firm said that on Jul. 14 it presented a business plan to its creditors, which had a “positive” reception.

The agreement was frustrated, however, because one of the companies holding unpaid bills, Cormin, sought action by Indecopi, the regulatory agency that handles bankruptcies, which could decide on the restructuring or liquidation of the company.

In a proposal to the government, Doe Run has said it could keep paying its workers 70 percent of their wages.

“What should be guaranteed first and foremost is the source of jobs,” the head of the Doe Run workers union, Royberto Guzmán, told IPS.

“The government must understand this. We want operations to restart as soon as possible, we cannot wait any longer,” he added, pointing out that the workers had been out of work for 13 months, since the complex was shuttered.

Labour Minister Manuela García said the government has a plan that would provide alternative employment for the workers.

But Guzmán rejected the idea as an “11th hour reaction.”

According to the labour minister, the company employs more than 3,000 workers, including 2,500 in the smelter complex and the rest in the Cobriza copper mine.

“The government has to keep in mind the economic viability of La Oroya as a whole, not only of the workers but also of the local residents who depend on the other activities generated by the complex,” José De Echave, an economist with CooperAcción, a local social development organisation, told IPS.

De Echave said Doe Run might bring action against the Peruvian government before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), under the free trade agreement signed by Peru and the United States.

Former mining official Marita Chappuis told IPS that “it would be ideal for construction of the sulphuric acid plant to be completed” if the smelter is reopened and run by another company, in order to protect the health of the local population.

See online : By IPS

Urgent Appeal for Action on behalf of human rights defenders in Mexico - Front Line

My Chacara — 2010-05-03T06:42:49Z

URGENT APPEAL – 30/04/2010 / Oaxaca - Mexico

Human rights defender Ms Bety Cariño and international observer from Finland, Tyri Antero Jaakkola tragically killed in violent paramilitary attack.

Front Line is deeply saddened by news received of the violent paramilitary attack on a peaceful solidarity campaign in Oaxaca, Mexico, which resulted in the killing of WHRD Bety Cariño as well as an international observer from Finland, Tyri Antero Jaakkola.

Bety Cariño is especially remembered as a participant at the Fifth Dublin Platform which was held by Front Line in February 2010. Bety inspired everyone by her dedication to the defence of human rights in Oaxaca and her courage in continuing to work for the rights of indigenous populations and women and children.

Take Action

Bety Carino attended the Dublin Platform in February 2010. Everyone who met her was deeply impressed by her passionate devotion to the struggle for human rights in Oaxaca.

If you log onto https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/...

you will find the link to Bety's testimony to the Dublin Platform on You Tube.

You will also find the translation of her testimony attached.

Please log onto You Tube because driving the video of her testimony up the ratings is one effective way of drawing attention to her story – and please encourage all your friends to do the same

Please also copy the enclosed letter and send it to the address provided.

The text of the letter is attached separately so you can just print it out and send it off.

Please put your own name and address on the letter. and if you receive a reply, please forward it to Front Line.

Presidente Felipe Calderon,

Presidencia de la República,

Los Pinos,

Col. San Miguel Chapultepec,

11850,

México DF,

México.

Your Excellency

I have recently heard about a violent attack on a peaceful solidarity caravan of human rights defenders yesterday, 27 April 2010, as it tried to enter the autonomous indigenous municipality of San Juan Copala. It has been confirmed that at least two human rights defenders have been killed and others remain unaccounted for.

On 27 April 2010, at approximately 14:40, a humanitarian group made up of 30 human rights defenders as well as international observers were on their way to attempt to enter San Juan Copala in order to deliver provisions to indigenous communities who have been under siege by armed groups.

As they entered the community of La Sabana, a town reportedly controlled by paramilitary organisation Unión de Bienestar Social de la Región Triqui UBISORT (Social Welfare Union of the Triqui Region), their vehicles came under fire. Beatríz Alberta (Bety) Cariño Trujillo, of the Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos CACTUS (Centre for Community Support Working Together), and Tyri Antero Jaakkola, international observer from Finland, were both killed in the attack.

Noe Bautista Jimenez, David Venegas Reyes and Daniel Arellano Chavez,all members of Voces Oaxaqueñas Construyendo Autonomía y Libertad VOCAL (Voices from Oaxaca for Autonomy and Liberty) remain missing. The three human rights defenders escaped when the attack broke out and it remains unknown whether they were captured by paramilitaries or whether they are in hiding.

One member of the group, Mónica Citlali Santiago Ortiz, was injured in the attack but was able to get to a hospital for medical attention. Those who did not escape and who remained in the vehicles were interrogated by the paramilitaries. Some have reported receiving death threats prior to being released.

UBISORT paramilitaries have reportedly sealed off the area and are refusing entry or exit to anyone, including medical teams and ambulances. There are further reports that the State Police of Oaxaca have refused to enter the area to assist locating those members of the peaceful movement who have not yet been accounted for.

The human rights organisations were attempting to enter San Juan Copala to provide support to the local community who have been without electricity, water, medical access and basic provisions as a result of the ongoing paramilitary blockade. Schools have also been shut down since January 2010.

The caravan of observers included individuals from Finland, Italy, Belgium and Germany, members of the CACTUS, VOCAL, Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca APPO (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca, the Red de Radios y omunicadores Indígenas del Sureste Mexicano (Network of Indigenous Radio Stations and Broadcasters of the Southeast of Mexico), as well as a group of teachers from the municipality who have been unable to give classes.

I am gravely concerned by reports of this violent attack on peaceful human rights

defenders and the killing of Beatriz Alberta Cariño Trujillo and Tyri Antero Jaakkola.

I remain extremely concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of all of the Mexican human rights defenders who make up the group, in particular those whose whereabouts remain unknown, as well as international observers accompanying the solidarity campaign.

The violent attack is directly linked to the peaceful activities of those national and international individuals as they attempted to defend the rights of the local communities affected in areas controlled by paramilitary groups.

Yours sincerely

Name ..............................................

address ...............................................

Thank you for taking action on behalf of Bety Cariño, Tyri Antero Jaakkola. and other human rights defenders in Oaxaca.

See online : Original article

Stand Up for Democracy! - Avaaz

My Chacara — 2010-04-22T10:21:14Z

Judge Garzón is to be tried on charges that could end his career, inflicting a fresh blow to the credibility of Spain´s judicial system.

Garzon is accused of violating the 1977 amnesty law, but numerous legal experts say international law is clear: crimes against humanity cannot be amnestied.

A fierce political campaign aimed to discredit Garzón and bury these investigations and other inquiries into massive corruption scandals has been launched, and the Supreme Court is under enormous pressure to suspend him.

Only the power of public opinion can tip the balance in favor of justice, and avoid that ideology and impunity prevail over justice. Let´s urgently deliver 100,000 signatures to the President of the General Council of the Judiciary and the Supreme Court.

Take action now!

See online : Sign the petition

WHALES UNDER THREAT! - Avaaz

My Chacara — 2010-04-22T06:47:07Z

Within days, a proposal will be unveiled that could legalize commercial whale hunting for the first time in 24 years.

Once the proposal becomes public, member countries of the International Whaling Commission will make a decision to support it — or push back.

An outcry now — in the days and hours before these countries decide their positions — could stiffen the spines of those who want to protect whales by keeping whaling illegal. Avaaz has launched a last-moment petition which will be delivered to the delegates to the IWC every time we raise 100,000 signatures

Sign here

See online : Signe the petition

Wow - 450,000 EU for citizens for more GMO research and rising! Let's hit our 1 million target - Avaaz

My Chacara — 2010-04-16T12:44:36Z

The European Commission has just authorised growing genetically modified crops, putting the GM lobby's profits over the health concerns of the public.

Click below and help build a one million strong citizen's petition calling for independent research and strong regulation of GM foods

The European Commission has just approved growing genetically modified crops in the European Union for the first time in 12 years!

Caving to the GM lobby, the commission has ignored 60% of Europeans who feel we have to get the facts first before growing foods that could pose a threat to our health and environment.

A new initiative allows 1 million EU citizens to make official legal requests of the European Commission. Let's build a million voices for a ban on GM foods until the research is done; they will be delivered to the President Barroso of the European Commission. Sign the petition and forward this email to friends and family

Consumers, public health, environmental and farmers groups have long rallied against a few international GM companies having such significant influence over European agriculture. Concerns about growing GM crops include: contamination of organic crops and the environment; their impact on climate due to the excessive need for pesticides; the destruction of biodiversity and local agriculture; and the effects of GM food on public health.

EU member states have voiced strong opposition to last week's decision to authorise BASF's potato and Monsanto's maize — Italy and Austria are opposed, and France said it would ask for further scientific research.

There is still no consensus on the long-term effects of GM crops. And it is the GM industry, pursuing profits not public well being, that is funding the science and driving the regulatory environment. That is why European citizens are calling for more independent research, testing and precaution before crops are unleashed onto our land.

Now, the “European Citizens' Initiative” gives 1 million EU citizens the opportunity to submit policy proposals to the European Commission and offers us a unique chance to drown out lobbyists' influence.

Let's raise 1 million voices to put a moratorium on the introduction of GM crops into Europe and set up an independent, ethical and scientific body to research and determine the strong regulation of GM crops. Sign the petition now and then forward it widely.

More information:

Last Eurobameter Survey 2008 'Attitudes of European citizens towards the environment', page 66: http://bit.ly/aMkeVJ

The Independent, Fury as Brussels authorises GM potatoes: http://www.independent.co.uk/enviro...

Reuters, France blasts GM crop approvals by EU agency: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKT...

New Report: GMOs Causing Massive Pesticide Pollution: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andre...

Summary of the International Assessment on Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, including critics of GMOs use in agriculture: http://globalpolicy.org/social-and-...

Introduce a financial transaction tax for people and the planet now !

My Chacara — 2010-02-18T07:39:47Z

The financial sector has caused the current historic crisis. The exponential growth of the financial sector with a focus on short-term speculative gain has created a ‘casino economy'. With the bursting of the most recent bubble, millions of men and women have lost their jobs. People all over the world have been plunged further into poverty and a hundred million more people are hungry today.

You have mobilised hundreds of billions of dollars to save the banks and the financial system. At the same time, neither the social nor the climate emergency is being addressed with the political urgency it deserves and with the necessary financial resources to back it. Financial services corporations benefited for decades from the absence of meaningful regulation and are largely responsible for the crisis. We believe it is time for them to pay their fair share of the costs of recovery. A Financial Transactions Tax would be the most effective instrument to secure this. It would:

Generate funds to pay for the social costs of the crisis, to fight global poverty, to fund global public goods such as health care and to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Contribute to greater stability of the financial system by reducing speculation and excessive liquidity.

Business as usual is not an option. We urge you to decide at your next meeting inToronto, Canada (26-27 June 2010) to introduce a tax on financial transactions. Back your words with action.

Yours sincerely

Sign

See online : Sign the petition

Public Eye Awards 2010

My Chacara — 2010-01-20T09:42:14Z

Corporate responsibility here and now

The Public Eye Awards (formerly Public Eye on Davos) are a critical counterpoint to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. Organized since 2000 by the Berne Declaration (BD) and Pro Natura (the latter replaced by Greenpeace in 2009), Public Eye reminds the players of the global economy who impact people and the environment with destructive business practices that actions have consequences – in this case for the image of the company. We present shame-on-you-awards to the nastiest corporate players of the year. Two of these (in the categories „Global“ and „Swiss“) will be awarded by an in-house jury of experts while winner of the people's award will be chosen on this website by... the people. Starting this year (2010) we also present a „Greenwash Award“ to account for the rapidly growing number of institutions that fabricate social-environmental fig leaves in an attempt to make inveterate corporate players look greener than they are.

See online : http://www.publiceye.ch/fr/vote

Stand with Haiti - Avaaz

My Chacara — 2010-01-14T07:54:54Z

Haiti's worst earthquake in 200 years struck yesterday, devastating the capital city, killing thousands and threatening over 3 million people in this desperately poor country.

Haitians are urgently appealing to the world for help — we're already in touch with strong local organisations mobilising community-based relief efforts. Let's send a worldwide wave of donations to the front lines, to save lives now and help people recover and rebuild. Avaaz will work partners to make sure the help reaches those who need it most. Click below to donate:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stand_w...

Based on expert advice from leading humanitarian NGOs who have been working in Haiti for over 30 years, we'll offer donations to trusted local organizations, including:

1. Honor and Respect for Bel Air, a big community-based network in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, which is also supported by our friends at the respected Brazilian NGO Viva Rio 2. Coordination Régionale des Organisations de Sud-Est (CROSE), which brings together some of the most active community groups in the South of Haiti where the earthquake struck hardest. These groups include: women's groups, schools networks and local cooperatives

In 2008, Avaaz members donated over $2 million for Burmese monks to respond to the devastating Cyclone Nargis. Our money made an incredible difference there — because it went directly to local people on the front lines of the aid effort.

Times of painful tragedy can bring out the best in us by bringing people together. Let's join with the people of Haiti to help them rescue their communities from this brutal disaster — act now at this link:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stand_w...

Mexico: Assassination of human rights defender Mr Mariano Abarca Roblero - Frontline

My Chacara — 2009-12-13T09:47:13Z

APPEAL -11/12/2009

On 27 November 2009, at approximately 7.45pm, Mr Mariano Abarca Roblero was assassinated in Chicomuselo, the seat of municipal government in Chiapas. Mariano Abarca Roblero was a member of the human rights organisation Dos Valles Valientes (“Two Brave Valleys”), a movement opposed to mining operations, and was a follower of la Red Mexicana de Afectados por la Mineríá (REMA - the Mexican Network of those Affected by Mining).

Further Information

According to reports, Mariano Abarca Roblero was sitting in his van outside his home, speaking with Mr Orlando Velásquez, who was standing outside the van, when a man on a motorcycle approached and fired shots at him. Mariano Abarca Roblero received three bullet wounds to the neck and chest and died instantly. Orlando Velásquez also received a gunshot wound. After firing the shots, the man on the motorcycle continued on to the corner of the street, where he met with another man. The two individuals then left on the motorcycle, travelling in an unknown direction.

Mariano Abarca Roblero was a human rights defender who opposed mining operations in the municipality of Chicomuselo, where the Canadian company Blackfire Exploration Ltd has been extracting barium oxide for the past year. Just days prior to his killing Mariano Abarca Roblero had filed a complaint against two staff members of Blackfire Exploration Ltd in relation to death threats that had been made. Despite this complaint he did not receive any precautionary security measures from the authorities.

In July 2009, Mariano Abarca Roblero participated in a protest outside the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City which demanded the withdrawal of the mining companies from the region. During the month of July, he and other inhabitants of the municipality had carried out a road block in Chicomuselo to prevent the passage of the mining company's machinery and trucks. As a result, Mariano Abarca Roblero was arrested and charged on 17 August, accused of breaching the peace, criminal association, attacks on the means of communication, damages and prejudice against Blackfire Exploration Ltd.Mariano Abarca Roblero was released from custody on 26 August 2009 for lack of sufficient evidence to pursue a judicial process.

After his release he immediately joined a protest organised by the inhabitants of Chicomuselo to demand the withdrawal of the mining companies. He was an active participant in the II Encuentro Chiapaneco (Second Chiapas Meeting) of REMA which took place from 29-30 August 2009 in Chicomuselo.

Mariano Abarca Roblero's assassination forms part of an ongoing campaign of intimidation against anti-mining organisations in Chiapas. Staff at organisations including el Comité de Derechos Humanos Oralia Morales (the Oralia Morales Human Rights Committee) in Frontera Comalapa, and el Comité de Derechos Humanos 10 de Enero (the 10 of January Human Rights Committee) in Chicomuselo have been receiving death threats since July, which are reportedly being sent by employees of Blackfire Exploration Ltd.

Front Line believes that the killing of Mariano Abarca Roblero was directly related to his work in the defence of human rights, in particular environmental and land rights. Front Line sees this as part of a pattern of ongoing harassment of human rights defenders in Chiapas, and is seriously concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of the colleagues of Mariano Abarca Roblero, and of all human rights defenders in the region.

Front Line urges the Mexican authorities to:

1. Carry out an immediate, impartial and thorough investigation into the killing of Mariano Abarca Roblero, with a view to publishing the results and bringing those responsible to justice in accordance with international standards;

2. Guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of human rights defenders in Chiapas, particularly by ensuring that adequate and effective security measures are provided to protect human rights defenders at risk;

3.Ensure that all human rights defenders in Chiapas, carrying out their legitimate work in the defence of human rights, are able to operate free of restrictions and reprisals.